200 
PLllS^T S Is'ATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book VTI. 
in Italy. I find that Callimaclius,^^ considering it a more 
wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the 
two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and 
the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same 
day, ordered sacrifices to be off'ered up to him, which was 
accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his 
death. J^othing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable, 
as this mark of approval given by the gods. 
CHAP. 49. (48.) THE GEEATEST LEISTGTH OF LIFE. 
'Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of 
instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of 
us from the moment of his birth,^^ tend to render one very un- 
certain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length 
and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to 
make mention of this subject, while he states many circum- 
stances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabu- 
lous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our 
life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to 
the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides 
other particulars with reference to the phoenix and the I^ymphs 
of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives '^'^ 
one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius,"^^ the king of the 
Tartessii ; ten more to Cinaras,^^ the king of Cyprus, and two 
38 It has been conjectured by Poinsiret, that the word Callimachus" 
does not refer to the well-known poet of that name, nor to any other indi- 
vidual, but that it was the title of the president of the Olympic games. 
The opinion is not without plausibility, but is scarcely sanctioned by suffi- 
cient authority. — B. 
39 Pliny here alludes to the doctrine of astrology, which forms the 
especial subject of the next Chapter. — B. 
These statements are not found in any of the works of Hesiod now 
extant ; it is scarcely necessary to observe, that they are entirely without 
foundation, and contrary to all observation and experience. — B. 
The great age of Arganthonius is referred to by Lucian, in his treatise 
'*De Macrobiis," on Long-lived Men;" by Herodotus, B. i. c. 163; by 
Cicero, de Senect. sec. 19 ; and by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13 ; the 
three latter writers agree in making his age 120 years, and hence Pliny 
assigns to him the same age in the next page. — B. St. Augustine, De 
Civitate Dei, B. xv., quotes this passage of Pliny, and mentions the age 
of Arganthonius, as stated by him, to have been 152 years. For Tartessus, 
in Spain, see B. iii. c. 3, and B. iv. c. 36. 
'^2 His story is told by Ovid, Met, B. x., where be is said to have become 
V 
